$300,000 for bread leads to prison

Charges involved deception as well as fraud

Dave Bryan was sentenced to six years in prison for a caper that apparently involved overcharging approximately $300,000 worth of bread to Fosters Food Fair over a two year period.

Justice Charles Quin on Thursday, 20 April, described the breech of trust and resulting carnage in the lives of others as painting “a shocking picture of deception”.

Taking advantage

As part of the scheme Bryan, the former owner of Cayman Bakery, is said to have taken advantage of staff at the supermarket who trusted him and unknowingly assisted him in the fraud in which he falsified invoices and documents relating to bread, cinnamon rolls and Easter buns. An investigation into the matter found that Bryan had not delivered much of the goods for which his bakery had charged the supermarket.

Justice Quin said that once the fraud became evident, Bryan tried to blame other people, which led to a manager at Foster’s Food Fair losing his job after 27 years, as well as a delivery man at the bakery business to be deported back to Jamaica.

Aggravating factors

The Judge called this a callous breech of the trust that so many had in him, adding that there were few mitigating factors but several aggravating ones because so many others, including his partner at the Cayman Bakery, employees at Fosters and his step-daughter, who had to stop going to college as a result of him not being able to pay her tuition.

The court heard that Bryan had also tried to take out a loan fraudulently by attempting to borrow against his business partner’s home and forging his signature.

Justice Quin said, in light of the economy, instances of theft where there is a breech of trust must be sentenced in a manner that serves as a deterrent. He sentenced Bryan to five years for the two years of deception perpetrated against Foster’s Food Fair and an additional year for attempting to secure a loan fraudulently.